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Leanne Walsham

Empowering People arm  |  Transforming Businesses rocket

About Me

Director of People, Talent and Internal Operations, currently at Patchwork Health. I work at the point where people, internal operations, and growth meet - helping organisations build in ways that last.

My career hasn’t followed a traditional path. I came into people and talent leadership through operations, commercial responsibility, and running business operations - which means I’m most effective where growth, pressure, and reality meet. I specialise in shaping people and operations so organisations can scale without creating fragility, burnout, or hidden risk.

I’ve spent much of my career working with start-ups and scale-ups as they grow, restructure, and professionalise - often at the point where what looks good on paper no longer holds in practice. I’m interested in solutions that are commercially grounded, defensible, and sustainable over time - not performative or short-lived rocket

I’m motivated by work that lasts: teams that stay, leaders who grow, and systems that don’t collapse under scrutiny. I care deeply about trust, psychological safety, and wellbeing - not as abstract values, but as essential conditions for performance, retention, and long-term outcomes 🌱

In addition to my day-to-day role, I take on a small amount of advisory work with small businesses and charities on a selective basis. As an alum of the University of Essex, I’ve been invited over the past decade to take part in careers events and lectures, speaking about transferable skills, career paths, and the reality of how work actually unfolds.

If you’re navigating growth, change, or complexity and want to build something that genuinely holds - I’m always open to thoughtful conversation ☕️

Skills

  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Coaching
  • Creativity
  • Empathy
  • Intellectual Curiosity
  • People Tech Implementations
  • Proactivity
  • Relationship & Rapport Building
  • Resilience
  • Solution-oriented
  • Strategic Thinking
  • Thought Leadership

Knowledge

  • Continuity & Contingency Planning
  • Diversity, Equality / Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
  • Employee Communications
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employment Law & Best Practice
  • M&A
  • Mental Health & Wellbeing
  • Org Design & Job Architecture
  • Performance Culture
  • Remote & Hybrid Working
  • Retention
  • Talent Acquisition

Experience

Scaling HealthTech building innovative end-to-end workforce management solutions to enable flexible and sustainable staffing for the NHS.
Working closely with the founders and leadership team to shape how people, leadership, and internal operations evolve as Patchwork scales. Building on existing people and talent foundations while strengthening internal operating models, governance, and ways of working to support sustainable growth. Leading people and internal operations through periods of change, including organisational design, leadership transitions, and pre-acquisition planning and post-acquisition merger and integration.
A registered charity dedicated to preserving and restoring locomotives; and operating Didcot Railway Centre, a museum and preservation engineering site.
Continuing to support the Board in an advisory capacity, providing strategic input across people, talent, culture, and internal operations.
Appointed as a Non-executive Board Director following a period in an advisory capacity, with a focus on strengthening board governance and effectiveness, alongside advising on operational improvements across people, talent, and internal ops.
Advisor to the Board, providing governance-focused input across people, talent, culture, and internal operations.
Global FinTech providing an innovative payment technology to hospitality vendors.
clipboard Role focus: Leslie was a young company with a strong operational head start. My role was to re-engineer people, talent, and internal operations as the business scaled internationally - building sustainable infrastructure early, reducing future operational debt, and embedding the company’s mission and values as it grew.
tick Defined and delivered global People & Talent Strategy and EVP, aligned to business goals.
tick Partnered with the VP team to build and scale Revenue and Client Operations GTM teams globally (US and EMEA).
tick Partnered with the VP Technology to bring product management and development fully in-house, recruiting and scaling Tech and Product teams at pace.
tick Improved internal and international compliance across people management and internal operations.
People & Talent Strategy • International Scaling • Internal Operations • Compliance & Governance
Leslie's tech and client base was successfully sold in July 2022.
Global EnerTech SME providing innovative energy management solutions through smart grid technology.
Building an awesome team and providing an environment for success throughout three leadership transitions and the associated cultural and strategic changes and challenges.
clipboard Main role objectives: Building the People function and developing the People Strategy. From global talent acquisition through the entire employee cycle; and internal ops through continually improving performance and comfort by providing an environment for success and smooth, flexible operational infrastructure.
tick Delivered the global people strategy putting people first.
workwoman Executing the recruitment of brilliant individuals, hiring roles from graduate to senior leadership - creating and leading the recruitment and selection process and overseeing the whole talent acquisition process.
workwoman Implementing ways to attract, retain and motivate top-quality talent and maximising team value by developing skills and identifying group strengths and best-in-class talent acquisition.
workwoman Curating deliberate sustainable and scalable people and ops solutions through iteration and evolution based on feedback and performance to meet team needs and growth plans.
workwoman Delivering organisational value through well-managed change and scalable redesign.
workwoman Collaborating to design and maintain business contingency, continuity and succession plans; to manage and control risk; to identify and optimise opportunities; and overseeing CSR.
workwoman Leading crisis management and implementing contingencies during business impact events.
nerd Resident nerd on compliance with law and best people practice across the talent mix (incl. IR35).
tick Implemented flexible-working improving productivity, motivation and empowerment (led the team into a full remote-working model due to COVID-19 and back into a hybrid model).
tick Modernised and digitalised outdated, bureaucratic systems and processes through performance tooling and an agile and flexible approach to working practices, processes and policies.
tick Established scaleable and suitable operations to host and support international employees. Jurisdictions: USA multi-state and Germany.
bulb Elevated well-being and mental health - designed the well-being strategy and open support ecosystem via third party providers and internal coaching including mental health first aid.
bulb Brought diversity, equality and inclusion to the table for safe, proactive and open discussion and implemented a team-run D&I Steering Group with a forum for feedback; baseline metrics; and the foundation of a DEI strategy.
bulb Tackled the elephant in the room: engagement. Started the conversation on engagement and established a baseline for both psychological safety in giving feedback and team engagement.
marker Career shift to expand knowledge and increase exposure to larger scale business management, operations and scaling people practice.
clipboard Main role objectives: Kiwi Power sought a solution-driven operations manager to improve the team's working environment and employee experience and to design and build scalable people operations. Collaborate with the leadership team on core business management (people management and talent acquisition; ops and infrastructure; and business planning, change, continuity and risk). Identify and translate pain-points into tangible solutions.
👷🏼‍♀ Began curating the internal People and Talent function - created suitable, sustainable and agile policies and processes.
tick Ensured a smooth and fun environment - oversaw team and premises operations; championed a social and exciting workplace; looked out for team well-being; and provided hassle-free experiences to internals and externals.
tick Enhanced team communication and performance - implemented and promoted collaborative performance and knowledge sharing tooling and general systems improvement; and improved the onboarding experience.
tick Relocated the team to more suitable space to meet growth plans and foster a collaborative flexible environment (hybrid).
tick Achieved certification of and designed an externally audited combined management system - ISO 45001, 9001, 27001.
European agri-business brokering and trading bulk feed materials, additives and speciality products.
clipboard Main role objectives: Maintain infrastructure for growth by implementing new ways of working as the business grew and expanded the team and continue supporting subsidiaries and expand the partner portfolio. Lead sales plans across subsidiary companies.
tick Led sales strategies - in the agri-business side of the group delivered 100% opportunity to sale conversion and 100% client retention for partners with continued year-on-year revenue growth at 50%-100%.
tick Improved company performance through positioning, pricing, sales and account management; and reduced financial risk by managing overheads and supply chain.
👷🏼‍♀ Expanded people and internal operations - staging and set-up for compliant payroll, pension; implemented leave and time tracking for shift and hourly paid staff; and creating general workplace and People processes and ways of working.
clipboard Main role objectives: Managing existing and new entities by implementing sales and logistics processes. Actively sell products for all businesses. Onboard and mentor new team members.
chart Expanded agri-business portfolio with niche products and developed existing and new business for exclusive partners.
chart Collaboratively developed and scaled new side-line subsidiary businesses (removals sector).
tick Flexibly adapted and responded to fast-paced change and growth including first hires and a new business acquisition.
tick Implemented a scalable and sustainable parent company infrastructure and working practices to support growth - expanding on existing infrastructure to support continued business development including People practice and recruitment and internal ops.
tick Relocation due to new business acquisition to meet new warehousing and manufacturing activities.
nerd Compliance with contractual and legal requirements.
clipboard Main role objectives: As a start-up BDC Ltd required a hands-on individual to take on a pivotal and broad role - a combination of sales / trading (agricultural commodities and speciality feed products) and business operations and management. Be the exclusive executive representative for a French animal feed producer. Full assistance to the MD to aid the acquisition and retention of other exclusive partnerships under portfolio management.
chart Direct sales and trading on behalf of portfolio partners - building relationships with existing clients and forging new ones; and trading spot, future and channel distributor contracts of bulk and speciality animal feed products. Full sales life-cycle - developing leads; contract signing; delivery; and continued account management / customer service.
workwoman Occupational infrastructure and internal ops - financial admin and banking (incl. VAT and forex); premises and information management; comms and tech ops; and anything and everything the business needed to operate smoothly.
laptop EA to MD:
  • General business support.
  • Scheduling and diary management.
  • Travel arrangements.
  • Itinerary planning (business context).
clipboard Main role objectives: Clear data back-log and implement an efficient archiving system and Assistant to the departmental Financial Administrator.
laptop Financial admin assistant:
  • Raised and processed financial artefacts.
  • Processed T&E expenses.
  • Assisted with student events.
  • Processed student collections.
  • Organised CRB checks.
tick Implemented new processes and a database for future file storage and archiving.
clipboard Main role objectives: Market research into prospective CPD for healthcare professionals to enhance the current course portfolio (multi-campus) and Assistant to the departmental Marketing & Communications Administrator.
runner Market Research Frontrunner:
  • Created a database of market data.
  • Designed and distributed a mail-shot questionnaire to identify the requirement for additional courses.
  • Conducted feedback sessions with current cohorts.
laptop Marketing & Communications PA:
  • Event organisation (conferences and open days).
  • Prospectus and factsheet editing and mock-ups.
  • Scheduling and diary management.
  • Internal and external communications.
  • General admin.
bus Conducting campus tours and providing insight to prospective applicants.
Various part-time and summer jobs throughout tertiary education. Full details available on LinkedIn.

People Tech

  • BreatheHR
  • CharlieHR
  • CIPHR
  • Gallup12
  • HiBob
  • LearnUpon
  • LinkedIn + Recruiter
  • MetaView
  • TeamTailor
  • Udemy
  • Workable

Associations & Memberships

  • Operations Nation
  • People Stories
  • Everymind at Work
  • Purpl
  • CIPD
  • HR Ninjas

Education

Learning & Development

Adult Mental Health First Aid Refresher   |   Mental Health England
HR Wellbeing Academy   |   Everymind at Work
Implementing ISO 27001 2023   |   British Assessment Bureau
Fire Marshal Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
First Aid at Work Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
Fire Marshal Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
First Aid at Work Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
Adult Mental Health First Aid Refresher   |   Mental Health England
Internal Communications   |   Institute of Internal Communications
Workplace Well-being   |   Welfy
Data Science Bootcamp   |   Udemy
Remote Worker Health and Well-being   |   Udemy
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Training   |   Korn Ferry
Fire Marshal Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
First Aid at Work Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
Conflict Resolution   |   Udemy
Adult Mental Health First Aid   |   Mental Health England
CQI IRCA ISO 27001:2013 (Information Security) Foundation Course   |   Alcumus
CQI IRCA 45001:2018 (Occupational Health & Safety) Internal Auditor Course   |   Alcumus
First Aid at Work Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
Fire Marshal Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
CQI IRCA ISO 9001:2015 (Quality) Internal Auditor Course   |   Alcumus
Mindfulness & Well-being   |   Future Learn
IOSH Working Safely   |   St. John’s Ambulance
First Aid at Work (3-days)   |   St. John’s Ambulance
Fire Marshal Refresher   |   St. John’s Ambulance
CQI IRCA ISO 9001:2015 (Quality) Foundation Training Course   |   Alcumus
Financial Management and Administration   |   Udemy
Emergency First Aid at Work (1-day)   |   St. John’s Ambulance
Fire Marshal   |   St. John’s Ambulance
K2 London Trading Technical Analysis   |   Hosted by BCFTA
Feed Production   |   BCFTA
Sales and Management   |   Hosted by BCFTA
Leadership and Management   |   Future Learn
IOSH Managing Occupational Health and Safety   |   RoSPA
Health & Safety Competent Person   |   Worksafe UK
Advanced Nutrition and Health of Farm Animals   |   Hosted by BCFTA
Nutrition and Health of Farm Animals   |   Hosted by BCFTA
PRINCE2 Practitioner   |   ILX Group
Emergency First Aid at Work   |   St. John’s Ambulance
Trade Awareness   |   BCFTA
Microsoft Office Essentials   |   Local Provider
ECDL   |   Hosted by University of Essex
Brand Marketing Awareness   |   Hosted by University of Essex
Digital Marketing Basic Training   |   Hosted by University of Essex
© 2026 Leanne Walsham